Leap of faith

It’s been awhile since I’ve had a chance to post, because I’ve been surprisingly busy lately. In my quest for viable options to plug the holes in my little money-making vessel (more a tugboat than a schooner in the best of seas), I came across the idea of search engine evaluation. I think it was actually on a library list-serv that I heard about Leapforce, and after doing quite a bit of research on what initially sounded vaguely scammy, I finally decided it sounded legit enough to at least give it a shot. The idea is that after submitting a resume, reading through a 100ish page “general guidelines” on how to analyze web page utility and taking a tedious 2-part exam (you’re eliminated immediately if you don’t pass either part of the exam), one is qualified as a Leapforce Search Engine Evaluator. After about a week of reading and URL simulation, I passed the exams and was hired on as an independent contractor. That means I can work as much or as little as I want, from home. It’s not something I would want to do longterm or 40 hours a week, but is so far a pretty flexible part time solution.

What compells me about this work is its similarity to many aspects of librarianship. It reminds me of the types of queries I would get when I worked as a virtual librarian for OCLC’s QuestionPoint service (basically analyzing user intent and determining the best web resources for an information request). From what I can tell from the comments of other evaluators, they are discerning information professionals. Presumably the tests weed out the riff raff. Anyway, my little proactive experiment means I’m working a little more than usual…